WOW (Wendy O. Williams album)

WOW
Studio album by Wendy O. Williams
Released	1984
Recorded	1983 Right Track Studios, New York City
Genre	Heavy metal hard rock
Length	36:45
Label	Passport Music for Nations
Producer	Gene Simmons
Wendy O. Williams chronology
WOW (1984) Kommander of Kaos (1986)
Singles from WOW
"It's My Life" Released: 1984

WOW is the debut studio album by American singer Wendy O. Williams, released in 1984 by Passport Records. It is her first solo album not to be credited to her band Plasmatics, which went on a hiatus during that time. After the release of the album, Coup d'État (1982) with Plasmatics, the band was asked to appear as a special guest on the KISS tour. By the end of the tour, Plasmatics' recording contract with Capitol Records wasn't renewed and Gene Simmons approached Williams and Rod Swenson about producing the next album. As to avoid any time in legal issues with Capitol, they decided not to use the Plasmatics name on the record. Simmons also felt it would give him the freedom he wanted to add new players to the album. WOW is a hard rock album influenced by heavy metal, which marked a musical departure from Williams' previous material with Plasmatics. Williams was nominated for Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance for the album in 1985.

Wes Beech remained to play rhythm and lead guitars and T.C. Tolliver, the drummer on Coup d'État, remained to play on the new album. Simmons would play bass under the pseudonym of "Reginald Van Helsing". The only other new player on the album was lead guitarist Michael Ray to solve the technical challenges that had been a problem for several albums and had come to a head with the more complex music of Coup d'Etat. Simmons also pulled in the talents of Ace Frehley on "Bump and Grind", who hadn't played with KISS since leaving the band in 1982, Paul Stanley, on "Ready to Rock" and then-current KISS drummer Eric Carr on "Legends Never Die" as guests.

"It's My Life" was released as the lead single from the album. It later appeared on the soundtrack to the film Reform School Girls (1986), in which Williams starred.

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]

The reception to the album was heavily mixed, and remains so to this day. Fans received it fairly poorly; It was seen as a departure from the sound that made the Plasmatics great, and more of a Kiss album than a Wendy album, largely because of the inclusion of nearly all the members of Kiss, and Gene Simmons' writing some of the songs. One reviewer went on to state, "In some ways, Williams' first solo venture amounts to a watered-down echo of the Plasmatics' own bid for mainstream success, Coup d'Etat (1982), minus the latter record's radical political bent. That's not surprising, with the ever-career-conscious Simmons manning the producer's chair. Despite his best efforts, however, Williams would stay a quintessential cult artist. While not a remarkable record, WOW offers a convincing enough glimpse of the stardom that should have been hers all along."^[1]

Review copies were sent out to the various media outlets. Malcolm Dome, a reviewer for Kerrang! magazine, had picked the W.O.W. album as his album of the year. Wendy received in 1985 a Grammy Award nomination for "Best Female Rock Vocalist of the Year", won by Tina Turner.^[2]

Miscellanea

• Williams lost her trademark Mohawk during this album, opting instead to keep it more simple.
• This was the first time Gene Simmons ever played outside of KISS, playing bass under the pseudonym "Reginald Van Helsing"
• The main riff of "Legends Never Die" was originally from an unused song on KISS' own Creatures of the Night album.
• Despite being called Wendy's solo debut, the band's official biography from their website states that the lack of a Plasmatics title is only superficial and is still an official Plasmatics album.
• Despite the band official biography, manager Rod Swenson was quoted in Kerrang! magazine as stating "that it was Wendy's own LP", when responding to questions about the departure of Richie Stotts.
• An analysis has been made that this should be considered a KISS album.,^[3]
• The abbreviation W.O.W. can be seen in the Motörhead music video "Killed by Death", painted on the dune buggy in which Würzel and Phil Campbell are riding (in the scene where they all are mourning Lemmy's death), possibly due to Lemmy's and Wendy's earlier collaboration.

Track listing

Personnel

Band members

• Wendy O. Williams - vocals
• Wes Beech - rhythm guitar, lead guitar on "It's My Life"
• Michael Ray - lead guitar
• Gene Simmons aka Reginald van Helsing - bass, producer
• T.C. Tolliver - drums

Additional musicians

• Ace Frehley - lead guitar on "Bump and Grind"
• Paul Stanley - guitar on "Ready to Rock"
• Eric Carr - drums on "Legends Never Die"
• Vincent Cusano - guitar on "Ain't None Of Your Business"
• Mitch Weissman - piano on "Opus in Cm7"
• Micki Free - acoustic guitar on "Legends Never Die"

Production

• Frank Filipetti, Tom Roberts - engineers
• Billy Miranda, Tom Brick, Moira Marquis - assistant engineers
• George Marino - mastering

References

External links

• WOW at AllMusic
• WOW at Discogs (list of releases)